Beyond the Mind

Spirit—The Ultimate Technique

Healing is ultimately an affair of the heart; the true healer lies within. Technique plays a role, but it is not the deciding factor in helping patients create harmony and healing. Spirit is the ultimate technique.

Our Foundation's educational forum, Building Bridges of Integration for Traditional Chinese Medicine—Transformation: Spirit in Healing, occurred this past fall, and we're delighted with its continued growth. What resonated with so many were the in-depth discussions about finding the root causes of illness.

Today, we're awash with new healing techniques, tools and technologies. Often, practitioners in the healing arts embark on an endless quest for the latest techniques. While this search may satisfy those hungering for the next "new thing in healing," it leaves others starved for a deeper understanding of how to truly help patients.

TCM offers a way to look at the human body by applying principles derived from observing nature. Technique is secondary. In ancient China, it was understood that the best warrior needed only one sword. Why? The tool itself wasn't extraordinary; it was only an extension of the individual's talent and intuition. Tools are mere conveyances for the user's heart and spirit.

Where are the masters who can talk about this wisdom and help us experience it? Sadly, they're hard to find today. Our busy lives prohibit us from making the kind of commitment necessary to follow a master as apprentices did long ago. So, we've developed a thirst for shortcuts and new technologies. We've come to believe healing depends on external things. Unfortunately, this desire creates a passion for more knowledge, not wisdom. The outcome is that one rarely has the chance to nurture the patience to learn one thing well enough to own it and amplify it.

In the healing process, good technique has its place. Yet technique only provides transportation for healing. It is the conduit that allows spirit to flow between practitioner and patient. Tools are not the healers. If practitioners lack a deep understanding of healing principles and the true energy and spirit behind technique, the technique becomes dry, devoid of power. How is it a master's work can produce a powerful healing effect, while his student's cannot? Same technique . . . different outcomes. The difference has everything to do with the spirit and level of the master, along with everything infused into the healing—training, Qi, spirit and love.

Our recent conference provided a unique stage for a special faculty of Eastern and Western practitioners. Among them was a group of Chinese TCM practitioners who have studied many years with high-level masters in China. Each has strong academic training and an extensive background in contemporary medicine. These doctors are, however, unusual precisely because they have apprenticed with some of China's most respected masters and healers.

Traditional training involves an intense closeness with the master, living with him almost daily. Often it includes bringing the master tea, cleaning herb drawers, eating with and listening to the master. This training allows students to perceive firsthand how the master thinks, feels, and approaches patients. The wisdom derived from this experience is beyond book learning or language. It is experiential and of the heart. Few doctors, East or West, have been fortunate enough to gain healing insights this way.

Today in China, the traditional way of transmitting information from master to student is becoming extinct. This makes our Chinese TCM conference presenters all the more extraordinary. They represent the bridge from one generation to another. Through these healers, our conference participants can still glimpse something intangible—beyond technique.

If you were fortunate enough to attend Building Bridges 2006, we hope you "caught the spirit" of this special forum. Participants resonated with the energy and heart of Building Bridges, as well as its content. The experience helped attendees regard healing in a fresh, new light—one that brought them closer to the heart of healing in an intimate, powerful way. We invite each of our readers to join us next October 18–21 for Building Bridges 2007—Whole Family, Whole Health, where we will come together in community to nurture ourselves, explore topics that will help deepen patient relationships, and find the essence of true healing spirit within our practices.